potter-solomons

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Full Transcript up at the link.

Quote:

MARSHALL: They did. So I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 18 months. But growing up, they just said I had tight tendons. And when I kind of pressed them as I got older and that explanation didn't carry water anymore, they told me I had hemiplegia or hemiparesis, so essentially symptoms of cerebral palsy that indicate paralysis on parts of the body. So they really tried to sidestep the kind of loaded term of cerebral palsy.

Dear Parents, Teachers, Babysitters (and other well-meaning authority figures in a kid's life):

Do Not Do This.

For crying out loud... Why else do you think "Cerebral Palsy" is a loaded term, in the first place?! Jeez Louise! You're not sparing anyone from stigma. You're the ones loading the word with stigma, like filling a wheelbarrow with bovine manure.

[nonesuchrecords]

"That lush, layered contralto voice can belong to only one person—Natalie Merchant," NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday host Ayesha Rascoe says of her guest. "She does it all." They talk about Merchant's new album, Keep Your Courage, out this Friday on Nonesuch, and her months-long tour, also starting this Friday. You can hear their conversation featuring excerpts from the album here.

[haggishlyhagging]

Japanese illustrates the complex interaction between male social/political dominance and control of language use. It manifests not only the three ways patriarchal language infiltrates our minds and the ways we talk (or are permitted to talk) or are talked about by men, but also provides instances of women's defiance of PUD [Patriarchal Universe of Discourse] rules. When men name the world of their perceptions, they also name the place of women in that world; these names lexicalize men's concepts and form semantic sets within a culture's vocabulary. When men control the social and grammatical rules of a language and have mandated their dialect as the standard, they define what women are allowed to say and the way in which they must say it. The "place" of a woman in a man's world isn't only reflected in certain sets of words in the language's vocabulary but is also marked in her speech by specific suffixes. Japanese women aren't utterly silent, however, and have words for describing their own experiences, including derogatory terms for men.

In a 1988 Weekend Edition, National Public Radio (NPR) did a segment called "Japanese Women's Language." A man's voice introduced the segment as "a story about sexism, although most people in the country we're about to visit wouldn't call it that." Patronizingly acknowledging that, "of course, the United States has its share of sexism," he went on with his ethnocentric description of "sexism" in Japan:

now imagine a culture that forbids women most of the time to speak the same language as men, a society where women actually have to use different words than men do to say the same thing, or else they'll be shunned.

Men's subjugation of women in Japan goes back at least 1,000 years, to a time when women were forbidden to speak to men. In the 1930s, the Japanese government issued edicts warning women not to use words reserved to men, and the resulting differentiations remain in force, if not the edicts themselves (NPR). The significant adjectives that distinguish onna kotaba, 'women's words', from the male dialect are 'soft' and 'harsh', the equivalents of English 'weak' and 'forceful'. One example of the pressure on women to speak softly and submissively, if they speak at all, is the custom of hiring elevator "girls" in Japanese department stores.

According to the NPR report, women hired as elevator "girls" must be "pretty, young, and very, very feminine." One of the behaviors that conveys onna-rashisa (the stereotype of femininity) is the ability to speak women's "language" correctly, and this aspect of the elevator operator's job performance is closely monitored. They are expected to talk in "perfect women's language," and "never slip and use a masculine word." Their fluency in the linguistic display of submissiveness is insured by one-half hour of mandatory daily practice, during which any "unfeminine" pronunciations are corrected. In order for a woman, any woman, to be perceived as "nice," she must speak "correct women's language" (NPR). Women who don't speak the submissive dialect men assign to them don't get jobs.

R. Lakoff (1975) and Mary Ritchie Key (1975) both noted that the sentences of English-speaking women are likely to be longer and wordier than those of men, and the same apparently holds true for Japanese. A man might be able to say, "Open the window!" but a Japanese woman, in order to get the same thing done, would have to say, "Please open the window a little bit, if you don't mind!" The result is that a woman's sentence has only one or two words in common with a comparable male utterance (NPR) and is much longer. Not surprisingly, Japanese women's dialect is perceived as more subservient and tentative than men's, because the women must use submissive, self-effacing phrases equivalent to the tag-questions that Robin Lakoff (1975) associated with women's speech in English. These phrases translate into English as "do you think," "I can't be sure," and "will it be," and their use in commonplace statements means that Japanese women say an average of 20% more words than men to describe the same thing. In Japanese, it is impossible for a woman to speak informally and assertively at the same time (NPR).

-Julia Penelope, Speaking Freely: Unlearning the Lies of the Fathers’ Tongues

[bingoboingobongo]

task force 141 + stocking stuffers

Characters: Simon "Ghost" Riley, John "Soap" MacTavish, Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, John Price, Alejandro Vargas, Rodolfo "Rudy" Parra

Type: Fluff, headcanons

Warnings: none

A/N: gshshhshd posted part 2 to the right thing to do today and now im writing this to help the anxiety

kyle "gaz" garrick:

ok so i feel like gaz is a little bit of a nerd/geek

so he enjoys getting little figurines/action figures of characters from shows/movies/games he likes

think like funko pops

he likes to set them up along his desk in his room

and sometimes he pretends they're watching him while he works

his favorite candy to get in his stocking is peanut m&ms

he's just a fan of all kinds of peanut chocolate candies and i can't even blame him

peanut m&ms slap

in terms of getting things for other people

gaz always goes with a classic gift card

he will, however, make sure that the gift card matches with their favorite store

john price

price's favorite thing to get in his stocking is puzzle books

crossword puzzles, word searches, sudokus, riddles, etc.

anything and everything puzzle based he loves

he likes bringing them with him on missions when he has a spot of free time

they're relaxing to him and they keep his mind young

he's also insanely good at doing puzzles

but he's also had years and years of practice

he also got to go on npr and play the puzzle with weekend edition puzzle master will shortz a few years back

he also did really well and so now he never shuts up about it

whenever he pulls out his puzzle book it's followed by a comment about his time on npr

in terms of what he likes to get for other people he usually gets them candy

you know those plastic candy canes filled with different kinds of candy?

yeah price will buy like three of them for each team member and then call it a day

but of course he gets each team member their favorite candy

he also lets them get away with more stuff during the holidays

i.e. skipping chores, training, etc.

oh yeah i almost forgot this but price lives getting socks in his stocking

fuzzy socks, normal socks, thermal socks, patterned socks

he's really just a fan of socks in general

simon "ghost" riley:

ghost doesn't really have a favorite thing to get in his stocking

but his favorite thing is always whatever you get him

even if it's something stupid or small

one time you got him a customized pocket knife and he's kept it with him ever since

but usually he enjoys whatever little knick knacks people put in his stocking

and in general the stuff he gets are more practical then sentimental

and oml when it comes to things ghost gets for other people

ghost is actually insane at gift giving it's unreal

everything that everyone else likes? that's exactly what he gets them

part of it is because he's so observant he can always tell what people enjoy

and the other thing is that he's so good at reading people he knows exactly how they feel about the gifts they get

but like ghost is the kind of guy to get you smthing you mentioned back in january

and he always makes sure to get exactly what people want, even if it's super inconvenient for him

it's hard for ghost to be vulnerable and so giving these little stocking stuffers which are traditionally seen as sorta trivial lets him show everyone in the team just how much he loves them without making a big deal out of it

john "soap" mactavish:

ok before we get to soap's favorite stocking stuffers here's his least favorite stocking stuffer

soap

that's it

every year, everyone on the team gets him soap for his stocking stuffers

sometimes it's a bar of soap, sometimes it's three in one, one time someone got him a soap from lush (he actually really enjoyed it)

so every christmas season soap gets way too many soaps than he needs

usually he sends most of them to a local shelter and then keeps one for himself

now onto his favorite stocking stuffer

i feel like soap is actually an avid collector of lighters

but not normal lighters like novelty lighters

so like lighters with cool colored flames or cool shapes

everyone on the team knows about his collection so they're always on the lookout for cool lighters when they're on missions

so as a result he has a ton of lighters from like all over the world

i think the funniest thing is he doesn't even use them

sometimes he'll light a cigarette with them or fiddle with them but for the most part he keeps them in his room

he's very protective of them though and he doesn't let anyone use it without permission

rodolfo "rudy" parra:

rudy's favorite thing to get in his stocking is mini lego sets

and yes he like big lego sets for his actual gifts too

he's liked legos ever since he was a little kid so it only makes sense

he likes getting the mini holiday sets but he also likes getting those minifigure sets where you try and get all of the characters

he also composes a year long list every year of sets that he wants

he really likes the lego technic car sets too

in terms of what he gets other people

he'll usually make something homemade for them

like cookies or smthing

and then he makes key chain minifigures of them and puts them in their stockings

and they're like surprisingly accurate

it's very very cute

most team members keep them on their key rings or in their bags

he makes new ones every year and he'll even custom make faces and clothes to make them accurate

alejandro vargas:

alejandro's favorite thing to get in his stocking are hygiene products

i know that sounds weird but lemme explain

by hygiene products i mean grooming stuff, face masks, etc.

i feel like alejandro is the kind of guy who isn't scared to pamper himself and take care of his skin/body

so whenever christmas comes around he always asks for skin care/hair care stuff

he always tries to get the rest of the team to join him and he can usually get most of them on board

all of them except ghost of course

but soap, rudy, price, gaz, and him will always have a spa day/hair day after christmas

when it comes to getting other people stuff alejandro likes getting them skincare too

this way when they have their spa day everyone has facemasks and hair products, etc to use

nobody knows how but alejandro is actually really good at knowing what kind of skin everyone has

and he always gets them products aligned with their skin

but along with skincare he also gets everyone cash for the stockings

usually around $25-$35 for each person

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Billboard

* * * *

NPR reports on Trump's 162 lies during last Thursday’s press conference.

The journalists in attendance at Trump's staged press-event last Thursday failed to challenge him when he spouted lie after lie. Some organizations did “fact checks” of the most egregious lies. But only one news organization has published a comprehensive analysis of every lie Trump told during the 90-minute press conference. See NPR, 162 lies and distortions in a news conference. NPR fact-checks former President Trump.

The report by NPR is exhaustive. It required a substantial amount of work and attention to detail. NPR and the reporters who researched the article deserve to be commended for their work. The article begins by noting that Trump told two lies per minute during the press conference!

A team of NPR reporters and editors reviewed the transcript of his news conference and found at least 162 misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies in 64 minutes. That’s more than two a minute. It’s a stunning number for anyone – and even more problematic for a person running to lead the free world. Politicians spin. They fib. They misspeak. They make honest mistakes like the rest of us. And, yes, they even sometimes exaggerate their biographies. The expectation, though, is that they will treat the truth as something important and correct any errors. But what former President Trump did this past Thursday went well beyond the bounds of what most politicians would do.

The byline on the article is Domenico Montanaro, but the text says it was written by a team of reporters and editors. I urge readers to provide feedback to NPR on its editorial decision to invest the time and resources to catalog Trump's lies. We must not allow Trump to exhaust us through the sheer volume of his lies. NPR didn’t let that happen for last Thursday’s staged press event. Kudos to NPR!

An article by Tom Nichols in The Atlantic also deserves attention. See The Truth About Trump’s Press Conference. (This article is accessible to all.) Nichols reviews the headlines in the NYTimes, WaPo, CNN and other media outlets, all of which focused on the impact of the news conference on the horse-race aspect of the election.

Nichols writes,

All of these headlines are technically true, but they miss the point: The Republican nominee, the man who could return to office and regain the sole authority to use American nuclear weapons, is a serial liar and can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy. Donald Trump is not well. He is not stable. There’s something deeply wrong with him. Any of those would have been important—and accurate—headlines.

Sunday presented another opportunity for major media to redeem themselves and finally—finally—acknowledge that Trump is not well. Will they do so in their Monday editions? We can always hope. Read on!

Trump descends further into conspiracy, delusion, and deceit over the weekend.

Last week, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz visited Michigan in Air Force 2. They disembarked the plane and walked into a hangar that held an overflow crowd that spilled onto the tarmac. Estimates put the crowd size at about 12,000.

On Saturday, MAGA internet trolls began analyzing the “reflections” on the body and engines of Air Force 2 and could not see reflected images of the crowd. The trolls could not see the reflected images because they were examining curved surfaces that reflected light and images from directly beneath the plane—where no one was standing. The trolls should have spent more time in high school science classes than playing multi-player fantasy games online. But I digress.

The trolls immediately concluded that the images of the crowds were generated by AI autofill in Photoshop. That claim was immediately and unequivocally rebutted when video from major media outlets panned the crowd and Air Force 2 in a single shot, proving the crowds were real—not AI-generated images. That should have been the end of the story, right?

Wrong! On Sunday, Trump posted a rant on Truth Social in which he claimed that Harris and Walz were resorting to AI to make it appear that their crowd sizes were larger than Trump's. With apologies, I am going to reprint Trump's rant in full. Read as much as you can, and then meet me on the other side:

Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she "A.l'd" it, and showed a massive "crowd" of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN'T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror-like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane. She's a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the "crowd" looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake "crowds" at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING - And they're even worse at the Ballot Box. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Anyone who does that will cheat at ANYTHING!

One of two things is true: Trump believes that the images are faked (despite video by major new organizations) or he does not.

If Trump has fallen into delusion and conspiracy, that fact deserves front page treatment from every news outlet in America.

If Trump knows the images of the crowd are true, then he is setting up a claim that Democrats can only win the 2024 election by cheating, and that fact deserves front page treatment from every news outlet in America.

As I said, we shall see if the Monday editions of major news outlets say (a) Trump is descending into delusion, or (b) Trump is setting up an attack on integrity of presidential election for the second time!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[blvck-coffee-dad]

April 13, 2024

Good morning. If you could hear this post, you'd be hearing the sounds of NPR's Weekend Edition floating through the air.

[jwood718]

George Takei has a book! And it's his birthday!

Crown Books for Young Readers via NPR

Speaking on Weekend Edition Saturday's broadcast this morning, Takei and illustrator Michelle Lee discuss what it was like to be forced into a camp at age 4, and the details looked for to properly show life behind the wire.

"'The horse stalls were pungent,' Takei remembers, 'overwhelming with the stench of horse manure. The air was full of flies, buzzing. My mother, I remember, kept mumbling "So humiliating. So humiliating."'

He says, 'Michelle's drawing really captured the degradation our family was reduced to.'"

"You drew the home that my mother made out of that raw space, Takei tells Lee. "That was wonderful."

"'These themes of displacement and uprooting of communities from one place to another — these are things that are constantly happening,' says Lee. 'Because of war and because of political decisions ... those themes aren't uncommon. They're universal.'"

Full story with audio button (so you can listen to Takei and Lee talk about the project!) produced by Samantha Balaban. Includes link to order the book.

Happy birthday Mr. Takei.

[wachinyeya]

How one neighborhood in Colombia is tackling climate change at the community level https://one.npr.org/i/1228839451:1228839452

In Colombia's second-largest city, rainy season floods and dry season fires are now a fact of life. As reporter Jorge Valencia found, local residents are grappling with those and other effects of climate change by taking matters into their own hands.

[themirokai]

Miro Does Podcasts

I listen to a ton of podcasts because I’m listening basically any time I’m by myself and doing something that doesn’t allow me to be looking at my phone or reading. I drive for at least an hour five days per week, plus some on weekends. I walk my dog, cook, do laundry, etc all while listening to podcasts.

I mostly listen to non-fiction shows and I mostly do not do true crime.

I’d like to give some recommendations both of shows and individual episodes I particularly like. I don’t plan on this being very structured. I’ll post as I have time and inclination.

So with that introduction out of the way… let me tell you about my daily listens:

1. Up First from NPR. This is a ~15 minute show that comes out Monday through Saturday with the top 3 stories from that day’s episode of Morning Edition (Weekend Edition on Saturday). While I do at least skim headlines from two of my local newspapers daily, I feel like with Up First I have a decent sense of the national and international news of the day.

2. NPR Politics Podcast. 15-20 minute weekday show on US American politics. 3 reporters from the NPR politics team have a pretty casual round table discussion on the political news of the day or some longer term political story. The reporting is truly non-partisan and factual (which in today’s world means that some people perceive it as partisan because, for example, they factually state that the 2020 election was not fraudulent or stolen). I like the variety of reporters who cycle through the show because they all have different experiences and expertise but they’re all so smart and the discussion is always good. As a rule, I don’t do politics on tumblr because to me this is just an awful forum for it. But that doesn’t mean I’m not well-informed and very opinionated. The NPR Politics podcast helps me with the former and feeling more confident about the latter.

Please come to my inbox and asks with your podcast thoughts! This is the first post, but I’ll be using #miro does podcasts so check it out or filter accordingly.

[djregular]

This week's edition of What's Good is live for you and yours. Head over on to the blog proper to see the whole stack (as well as playlists, and the Bonus Beats section with The Lox discussing their recent NPR Tiny Desk appearance), but here are a few of my favorites.

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (20-26 Oct 2024)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 Historically Black Phrases: From "I Ain't One of Your Lil' Friends" to "Who All Gon' Be There?" (jarrett hill & Tre'vell Anderson, authors & narrators) - this has been on the go for a bit, as it's more of a 'dip in & out of between podcasts and stuff' type of book - hilarious and interesting af tho

😍 In A Mirrored Room, Talking To Myself (entanglednow) - 65K, steddie ghost hunter!eddie AU - great characterization, solid plot and legit fucking terrifying!

😍 Pro Deo et Patria (One-EyedBossman (desert000rose), SecretFandomStories) - Differently Okay Local Idiots #14 - 66K, stucky no powers D/s AU - Another great slice of life for these two, Steve gets mad at god and they both are trying so hard and being so resolute to not let the ways they are damaged break what they have together. As always, the writing is so precise and careful and expressive and wonderful. I love this series so, so much.

😊 The Limits of Duty (LeeHan) - stucky bookclub pick - 71K, entertaining stucky fantasy au

💖💖 +126K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

The Magic of His Touch (VelvetPaw) - hockey rpf: sid/geno, 32K - - loved the magic worldbuilding

halloween spirit (wearing_tearing) - stranger things: steddie, 2K - - short & cute with a fun cameo from a real horror movie

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Decoding the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Tombstones With Dr. Nicky Nielsen - Session 1: Ancient Egyptian Afterlife & Hieroglyphics

Spirits, Saints, and Souls: The Secret History of Halloween With Lisa Morton - Session 2: Halloween Comes to America

Seas The Day: Life Lessons From Cephalopods With Dr. Sarah McAnulty - Session 2: Flamboyant, Fun, and Freaky: Learning from a cuttlefish’s approach to life

Handsome - Bob the Drag Queen asks about movie musicals

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #10

Only Murders In The Building - s4, e5-9

What We Do In The Shadows - s6, e1-3

Gastronauts - s1, e2

Dr. Odyssey - s1, e5

D20: Misfits & Magic 2 - "K's Anatomy" (s23, e5)

D20: Adventuring Party - "How to Save a Life" (s18, e5)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

The A24 Podcast - A Little Danger with Sebastian Stan & Colman Domingo

The Sporkful - “Super Size Me,” Twenty Years Later

Weekend Edition - Little is known about the striped skunk's smellier, spotted cousin. That's changing

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Bessie Stringfield, Motorcycle Queen of Miami

Weekend Edition - A hidden tomb was found in the ancient Jordanian city of Petra

Big Gay Fiction Podcast - Swordplay, Subterfuge, and Romance with Freya Marske

Death, Sex & Money - Bonus: The New Era of Pop Womanhood

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Aftel Archive of Curious Scents

Pop Culture Happy Hour - We Watch Classic Movies For The First Time

Switched on Pop - The virtuosity of Stevie Wonder

99% Invisible - Spirit Halloween

Vibe Check - That’s the 1, 2 Step

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Woman Of The Hour

NPR's Book of the Day - 'How Women Made Music' reexamines the history of music with women at its center

Short Wave - 'Ghost Genes' Could Help Save The American Red Wolf

Code Switch - Spitting on Andrew Jackson's Grave with Rebecca Nagle

It's Been a Minute - Kylie Minogue's tips for staying on top

⭐ Decoder Ring - The Wrongest Bird in Movie History

Re: Dracula - October 24: Not Yet Reported

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Living on Mars

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The South's Hidden Confessional

Consider This - Emo music gets its flowers at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Morning Edition - Why female pop artists have been screaming in their songs a lot lately

Ologies - Confectionology (CANDY) with Susan Benjamin

Wild Card - Seth Meyers likes being the punchline

Re: Dracula - October 25: To His Doom

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Venom: The Last Dance And What's Making Us Happy

Smart Podcast, Trashy Books - 638. Smart Bitches After Dark - Tara interviews Sarah & Amanda

⭐ Today, Explained - Is there a Dr Pepper in the house?

It's Been a Minute - The Billboard Hot 100's doom loop; Plus, a new kind of true crime story

Hit Parade - The Bridge: All That Bono Can’t Leave Behind

Re: Dracula - October 26: Continue Our Watching

The Sam Sanders Show - Roy Wood Jr: Finding Comedy in Political Chaos

Decoder Ring - The Surprising History of Halloween

Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - The Voices of… BLUEY!!!

⭐ Imaginary Worlds - Who Gets to Survive: The Final Girls of Horror

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Chill Supermix

Presenting Sabrina Carpenter

Rancid

Kylie Minogue

The Hit List

The Original Albums…Plus [Jim Croce] {2011}

[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

'Cabaret' comes back to Broadway starring Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin

APRIL 20, 20248:00 AM ET

HEARD ON WEEKEND EDITION SATURDAY

NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin, who star in the new Broadway revival of "Cabaret."

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: You probably recognize the music from the first notes. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WILLKOMMEN") EDDIE REDMAYNE: (As Emcee, singing) Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome. Fremde, etranger, stranger. SIMON: "Cabaret," the 1966 Broadway musical by Joe Masteroff, John Kander and Fred Ebb. It's drawn from Christopher Isherwood's memoir of high times and hot jazz and is set in a fictional Berlin nightspot called the Kit Kat Club. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WILLKOMMEN") REDMAYNE: (As Emcee, singing) Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret. SIMON: At a time when sequins, high-stepping flappers and forbidden love gives way to goose-stepping and beating Jews on the street. A new revival of "Cabaret" has opened on Broadway after winning seven Olivier Awards in London. Eddie Redmayne plays the Emcee, and he joins us from New York. May I say willkommen to you? REDMAYNE: You may indeed. Hi.

SIMON: And Gayle Rankin the British chanteuse who comes to Berlin. I get to say fraulein Sally Bowles. (LAUGHTER) GAYLE RANKIN: Hello, darling (laughter). I had to (laughter). SIMON: Oh, my gosh. Wait. Sorry. Let me just catch my heart for a moment. Thanks so much. (LAUGHTER) SIMON: Eddie Redmayne, you've played the Emcee before. I was about to say early in your career, but really, before you started your career. REDMAYNE: That's absolutely true. Yes, I was a kid. I was at high school when I - we did a little school production. I think I was about 14, 15 years old. It was one of those moments in my life where I would say really I fell in love with theater. It thrilled me, and it made me think, and it moved me. And so I always sort of credit it weirdly as being the thing that that got me into acting full and proper. SIMON: What does the Emcee do for the audience?

REDMAYNE: I think one of the reasons the Emcee is such a iconic role and one that so many actors lean into is he's so enigmatic. He was conjured by Hal Prince and Joel Grey as a way of connecting the Sally Bowles story, and so he almost lives in an abstract place. And so for an actor, that is joyous because there are sort of no limitations on the one hand, and it's also quite daunting. He sort of starts as a puppeteer almost, the kind of the Shakespearian fool, perhaps... (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TWO LADIES") REDMAYNE: (As Emcee) Come on, my little ones. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, singing) Beedle dee, deedle dee, dee. UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Beedle dee, deedle dee, dee. REDMAYNE: (As Emcee, singing) Beedle dee, deedle dee, beedle dee, deedle dee. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, singing) Beedle dee, deedle dee, dee. REDMAYNE: (Singing) Two ladies. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As characters, singing) Beedle dee, dee dee dee.

REDMAYNE: ...Who then, over the course of the piece, rises to the all-knowing king or the sort of from puppeteer to conductor, and he becomes rather than the victim, he's almost the perpetrator. And so this person that's hopefully pulled you in at the beginning of the evening and seduced you and made you laugh, you realize is actually conducting the entire piece. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IF YOU COULD SEE HER") REDMAYNE: (As Emcee, singing) If could see her through my eyes, she wouldn't look Jewish at all. SIMON: And Gayle Rankin, you have played other roles in "Cabaret" before Sally Bowles, haven't you? RANKIN: I have. I made my Broadway debut, actually, playing Fraulein Kost in the Sam Mendes revival 10 years ago with Alan and Michelle and Emma Stone. Eddie and I were just talking about it just the other day, and he was like, is this so weird? Is it so weird? And I was like, you know what? It's not weird. It's not weird. And it doesn't - I feel like a new person and in a new world 'cause that's - you know, "Cabaret," it comes back, and the world is new a decade later. It's new, and it's also the same.

SIMON: Help us look inside of Sally's mind and heart. What brings her to Berlin in the early '30s? RANKIN: You know, there's not a lot that's given to us, you know, about Sally. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MEIN HERR")

RANKIN: (As Sally Bowles, singing) But I do what I can, inch by inch, step by step, mile by mile. For me, it was very important for me to kind of figure out Sally's relationship to artistry and creativity and why she ended up at the club. And there's a huge, you know, kind of cultural discussion about whether Sally has talent or whether she does not have talent. And that's a really fascinating thing, I think, to me. And I think it's amazing how people think they can decide or that they know that she's not - quote-unquote, "not talented" or is talented. It's just wild to me. SIMON: I have to ask. There are so many famous names who have played the two parts into which you two step now - Dame Judi Dench, Natasha Richardson, Michelle Williams. Alan Cumming, Joel Grey have played the Emcee. I didn't even mention the film with Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey, now, did I? So do previous productions inspire you, or do you just have to, you know, leave them in the fridge? REDMAYNE: I've been such a passionate fan of "Cabaret" since I was a kid that I've seen everything in the sense that I've - you can see some of Sam's production on YouTube. I saw Sam's production with Emma and Alan. I've watched the film. I even saw a random Spanish version when I was... RANKIN: Oh.

REDMAYNE: ...Younger. And they've been so brilliant, the productions before, that I hope we come sort of standing on their shoulders and with great respect for them, but also trying to do something new and fresh. And one of the things that was important for me was that idea - one of the Emcee's first lines is leave your troubles outside, and that for audience members coming to see this in New York, you enter via a sort of back alley. You get taken down into the underbelly of the theater, where there is an entire cast of performers playing in these really beautiful spaces, and you get a bit discombobulated. It's labyrinthine, and you get sort of lost, so that by the time you are taken actually into the theater itself, which sits in the round, hopefully, you have genuinely left all memory of 52nd Street outside. SIMON: I got to say, your production reached through to me with something I hadn't quite realized before. Things are terrible and getting worse on the streets. They're beating Jews and putting them into ghettos. There's a refuge in the club. There's also a refuge in Fraulein Schneider's boardinghouse, where she, for the first time in her life, really has a relationship with a man who happens to be a fruit seller and a Jewish man. Both your characters have that refuge in the club, and they have their characters in the boardinghouse. But, you know, refuges - well, real life can bring them down, can't they?

REDMAYNE: Absolutely. And I feel like the play, in its essence, is a warning in some ways. It serves as a warning about when hate can take over humanity and when humanity is lost to hate. And that feels so relevant at this moment. There are so many examples of that throughout the world today, but I hope that the brilliance of what Kander, Ebb and Masteroff created was that it seduces you in and in a way that feels really sort of magnificent but then begins to touch on these - this repetition of history that resounds and serves as a warning. RANKIN: And it kind of - what's so scary about it is how the refuge is created, and then you slowly realize that actually, there's a poison inside of your refuge. SIMON: What do you take in from the audience every night? REDMAYNE: Well, I mean, one of the joys for me as a performer is the intimacy of the space. So there's not really a sort of a bad seat in the house at the August Wilson, and the other character in the room with the Emcee is the audience. And what I have loved about our experience in New York is people because it's an event almost, the evening, from the second you pass the threshold. The theater's been redesigned and reconfigured in a way. People are getting dressed up. So you have people in black tie next to people in fetish gear next to people in jeans and a T-shirt, and you get all sorts of characters.

RANKIN: And to have a relationship with the audience, you know, and to enjoy how fun... REDMAYNE: Yeah. RANKIN: ...This is and can be throughout the show till the very end - what is written in this piece, there's - we're still laughing through tears at a certain point toward - for the very end of the show, and that's what's so kind of timeless and important about this space, that there's something that doesn't die inside of our club. SIMON: Gayle Rankin and Eddie Redmayne star in the new production of "Cabaret" on Broadway. Thank you both so much for being with us. REDMAYNE: Thanks for having us. RANKIN: Thank you so much. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOMORROW BELONGS TO ME") REDMAYNE: (As Emcee, singing) The sun on the meadow is summery warm. The stag in the forest runs free.

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/20/1246083026/cabaret-comes-back-to-broadway-starring-eddie-redmayne-and-gayle-rankin

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“It was one of the fundamental experiences of my life, and I’m still close with a lot of people from that time,” says former DJ and program director Jay Kernis ’74, who went on to found NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “Weekend Edition” and now is a “CBS Sunday Morning” producer. “You immediately recognize your tribe—like, ‘Oh my God, these are my people.’”

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@vickiknits has been productive this last year and has donated about 50 hat and 30 glove sets to Blanchet House, so we were happy to hear their story on NPR this morning by Katia Riddle. In four minutes Katia makes clear why we support the great work by the people @blanchethouse If you’d like to hear it “A holiday concert for the unhoused in Portland brings joy” December 24, 20227:53 AM ET Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday Is available on npr.org Vicki and Jennifer at Blanchet House, Portland, 2022 🇺🇦💔🌎💔🌏💔🌍💔🇺🇦 #earth #america #human #homelessness #homeless #hospitality #donation #street #documentary #knitting #photography #hasselblad #camera #schwarzweiss #blancoynegro #blancinegre #bnw @ilfordphoto #film #blancetnoir #白黒 #Hēiyǔbái #siyahbeyaz #shirokuro #blackandwhite #filmisnotdead #portland #pdx #nw #oregon #photojournalism @hasselbladfilmgallery @hasselbladculture 22022709 HP5 Hasselblad 500 c/m 50mm Distagon https://www.instagram.com/p/CmkOEOQy_q1/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=